Eyes that wouldn't open wide, a sluggishness in his blood flow that made him feel as though his veins were clogged shut.
And yet the blood trickling from his nose and wounds showed no sign of stopping — whether there was blood left in his body or not, he couldn't tell. Maybe losing a little would actually help cool the overheated pounding in his skull.
Subaru shook his head — a head too slow to process the world, battered by too many blows — and thought exactly that.
It felt like the entire time, he'd been standing there just to be punched.
He hadn't meant to just stand there, but every punch he threw, every kick he launched, simply failed to land. Each time he was hit, he coughed up blood, bit down the pain, and rose with a disconcerting smile plastered on his face, as if to say "Your attacks don't hurt." And he kept doing it.
Of course they hurt.
Inside and out, he was already falling apart. His guts felt like every organ had burst and mixed together into a slurry. The bones supporting his body seemed to have shattered and crumbled to powder in a dozen places — the fact that his four limbs still moved at his command was nothing short of a miracle.
But none of this was the product of any miracle.
Every time his consciousness threatened to slip away, every time he was about to fall, a searing rebuke would seize the nape of his fading awareness and drag it back into place.
A sharp, stinging pain from inside his coat — the brain-melting agony of a method far too Spartan.
He'd been the one to ask for it, of course, but the mercyless way it was delivered still twisted his cheek.
Loss of consciousness was prevented through that trick. And yet Garfiel had plenty of other ways to put Subaru out of commission completely.
The fact that Garfiel could not — or would not — inflict the kind of damage that would leave Subaru totally incapacitated was entirely due to Garfiel's own judgment.
A direct hit from a fully healthy Garfiel would reduce Subaru to nothing. In one strike, his body would be reduced to a pulpy mass of meat.
Naturally, the fact that this wasn't happening also owed something to the enormous damage Garfiel had sustained from Otto and
The reason he hadn't was because — regardless of his own condition — Garfiel could not bring himself to deliver a lethal blow. That was his decision.
In the end, Garfiel was too kind — that was all there was to it.
Ryuzu, Frederica, even Ram herself had all said as much about him.
Beneath his usual wild temperament and rough manner lay a sensitivity far beyond what anyone would imagine from looking at him. Though his words were violent, his strength had always been cultivated inward — in the direction of protecting.
That very quality was something Subaru found unforgivable. Something that could bring about the destruction of the
And yet, facing this opponent, Garfiel still could not bring himself to take a life.
"……"
Subaru was fully aware that he was exploiting Garfiel's nature — his kindness.
From the very beginning, in any confrontation with Garfiel, exploiting his personality was the fundamental premise. As long as the opponent was a Garfiel who couldn't shake free through kindness alone, Subaru possessed a certain confidence: he would not be killed.
That said, he was currently being pummeled mercilessly by a Garfiel who was himself far from peak condition.
If Garfiel had been at full strength, this outcome would have been impossible to achieve. For that, Subaru owed his gratitude to Otto and Ram, who had fought so hard outside of his own calculations.
—They wouldn't happen to be dead, would they?
Given Garfiel's personality — the inability to resolve himself to killing Subaru — it seemed unlikely he'd killed them. If he had, Garfiel was the type of man who couldn't hide it through his attitude.
And above all, if he had killed Ram, there would have been no reason for him to appear in human form here to stop Subaru. He would have simply remained in his beast form, which was the natural thing to do.
He hadn't been able to kill them — that much Subaru had deduced, and Garfiel had not denied it.
If that was the case, then the outcome of the fight between Otto and Ram against Garfiel was whatever it was.
"——GRRROOAAARRR"
Before Subaru's eyes, Garfiel's body — still cradling its own frame — began to transform.
Arms, legs — not just one size bigger, but two, three sizes thicker and larger. The torso swelled in bulk and scale. Claws and fangs sharpened to the gleam of swords, and his features crackled and shifted from human to those of a great feline predator.
Golden fur erupted across every inch of exposed skin, covering him completely, and the four limbs planted against the ground braced the massive new frame.
—There, revealed, was a great golden tiger, its narrowed pupils reflecting Subaru's image.
He couldn't stop Subaru without killing him.
After throwing his fists again and again, Garfiel had finally reached that conclusion.
And to kill Subaru — who had to be killed — Garfiel made his decision.
He called upon the blood that slumbered within him, the beast's instinct, and became the great tiger to take Subaru's life.
So that he wouldn't have to see the moment of his own resolve — in the form of a beast that had lost its reason.
"But you're wrong, Garfiel."
The inability to kill, the inability to throw a proper punch — that was kindness.
To protect his own heart and the hearts of those around him, to preserve the place called the Sanctuary — that was kindness too.
But fleeing to somewhere he didn't have to watch himself kill the person he couldn't finish killing — that had nothing to do with kindness. That was Garfiel's weakness.
And
"I'm counting on you, my body! Don't let me get crushed by something like this!"
The beast Garfiel had become locked its predatory gaze onto Subaru, brimming with murderous intent.
The tension in all four limbs — it was the prelude to a predator lunging to tear its prey apart.
This was the only moment left to decide. Subaru clenched his back teeth once, then focused his awareness on the center of his own body — on the gate that connected to his dantian — and raised his voice.
"——ShamAAAAK!!"
"……"
The great tiger opened its maw, but in the very next instant, Subaru's full-throated cry resonated with the world itself.
Black smoke erupted between Subaru and the beast, billowing out to engulf the creature's towering frame. Just before being swallowed, Garfiel thrust an arm through the smoke as if to sweep it aside — but it reached nothing, and the arm vanished beyond the haze.
When the spreading abyss of darkness swallowed him, forcibly deployed incomprehension dragged a living being toward its end.
"Ugh, a—…!"
The instant he witnessed it, a shock like a lateral blow to the skull slammed into Subaru's head.
Pain as though a spike were being driven in from both inside and outside at once — his vision flared blood-red and scattered light in every direction. Different from the dull ache of Garfiel's punches, this was a searing agony that scraped at Subaru's very soul. Somehow, he swallowed it and chewed it down.
Using it, he'd been told — the Gate, its overuse.
Despite being warned by the greatest healing mage in the royal capital that he might never use magic again, Subaru betrayed those words and once again invoked it.
The searing sensation of the invisible Gate, imprinted on his awareness. The door at the center of his body — its root shuddered violently, and something tore away in a place far removed from Subaru's physical form.
Roughly, crudely — the pain of something being ripped out.
Carrying with it an irreversible sense of loss, it brought understanding to Subaru's mind.
"Thank you."
Again and again, he had relied on this. The thread connecting him to it had been severed.
It didn't matter. An option that shouldn't have existed in the first place was simply being destroyed in truth.
Even so, he was grateful that this power had carried him this far. For that, he was thankful.
So — goodbye.
"……"
He looked forward.
The final burst of magic he'd wrung out hadn't been enough to fully envelop Garfiel's massive form. It covered the most critical area — the head — but the uncovered right half of the beast's body was still exposed.
Even with every last drop of power, Subaru could only manage that much.
He exhaled through his nose. A clump of dried nosebleed dislodged and fell. He wiped it roughly with his sleeve, then planted a trembling foot forward.
His hand reached into his coat. His fingers closed around something solid, and he felt a secret relief that it hadn't broken in the melee up to this point. If he'd lost this, there would have been no chance — no chance at all.
"……
Before him, the black smoke was gradually beginning to fade.
How many seconds had elapsed since he'd cast the spell? Ten? Five? Maybe fewer. He truly didn't have the slightest shred of talent for magic. But right now, he was grateful for that fact.
The right half of the great tiger was visible — its body trapped in the world of incomprehension, frozen in place.
The fact that the magic had been incomplete now worked in his favor, removing any need to aim.
So the foot that stepped forward went without hesitation.
Right foot, left foot. Calling this a run would be generous — it was far too slow. But it was a plodding dash with momentum behind it.
And when he'd closed the distance to nearly arm's length from that towering body — "Get down to my level. —Garfiel."
Subaru drove the blue-gleaming crystal from inside his coat into the beast's thick right shoulder — and stabbed it in.
Light poured out.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ 'After your contract with
Unpolished, unshaped — its radiance looked as though it had been "carved out" of something, its sharp, fractured tip driven into the beast's hide, greedily drinking in life force itself.
"Nnnghh—!!"
Blasted by the light, Subaru was hurled backward as though struck by a gale. He landed on his seat and scrambled back. Before his eyes, the beast engulfed in black smoke still hadn't registered the change happening to its own body.
The crystal stone — roughly the size that fit in his palm — greedily sucked mana from the creature it was lodged in. Just having it stuffed in his coat had given Subaru an almost unbearable sense of depletion.
And what would happen if that effect were delivered directly to the flesh? —The answer was right in front of him.
"Ah— ah!? AHH!"
The smoke cleared.
The visual disruption of the black smoke, and the forcibly imposed incomprehension wrought by magical power — when both were lifted, the great tiger — Garfiel — found that the vast majority of his beastly transformation had been stripped away, and he was reverting to his original human form.
Fur fell away in tufts. Arms and legs like bundles of logs shrank back to a normal thickness. Fangs and claws shortened. The skeleton of his entire body cracked and popped as it returned to a human frame.
The one watching this transformation with the most disbelieving expression of all was Garfiel himself.
He stared wide-eyed in shock at the fact that his body had lost its beastly form and returned to its original state. He raised both hands and gazed at the human palms with trembling, golden eyes.
"Tha… that… just what the hell… is this…"
"I told you, Garfiel. —I don't pick fights I can't win."
At Subaru's words, Garfiel looked at him as though struck.
Subaru swept the dust from his backside, stood up, and — despite his swollen face — grinned with vicious satisfaction. Garfiel, seeing that grin, understood the truth: his body was deteriorating, and the heavy burden on it was only increasing. He twisted his neck and noticed the foreign object embedded in his right shoulder.
"What… the hell is this…? No, this is…"
"You recognize that glow, don't you? You and I both know what this is."
"Where'd you… get this, you son of a—!"
"From where you'd expect. —A crystal stone from Ryuzu Meyer. One of the reserves kept for maintaining that crystal's function."
—The laboratory deep in the forest.
Ryuzu Meyer, the foundation upon which the Sanctuary's barrier rested. The crystal that confined her in eternal imprisonment depended on a portion of the clones for its functional upkeep.
Periodically, Ryuzu's clones would replace the power mechanism beneath the luminescent crystal. Of course, the crystal stones for that purpose were not infinite. While staying within the Sanctuary, there would eventually come a time when they were exhausted and the function could no longer be sustained.
"That stuff was supposed to be brought in regularly along with food and supplies. If Roswaal's support included one of those, swiping one should've been easy enough."
"B-but… just stabbing me with this… there's no way this alone would drain my power like this… what kind of trick did you…"
"Who knows. …Maybe there's some absurdly ravenous monster sealed inside that crystal stone?"
Garfiel was gasping for breath, his words breaking apart.
He reached for his right shoulder and tried to wrench the crystal stone out, but the blue crystal seemed to reject his fingertips, biting into his flesh with no intention of coming loose.
Subaru exhaled deeply, letting his entire body go slack, and turned his gaze behind him.
He looked up, and there was Emilia — silently looking down on the two of them fighting. Just moments ago, his situation must have looked utterly hopeless to her eyes as well.
Even so, she hadn't tried to stop Subaru's fight. She, who had once tried so desperately to stop him when he fought with a stubbornness that was unfair to both himself and her.
He understood that what existed between them now wasn't quite what he could call trust.
As for what it actually was — surely that was still something that didn't yet take shape in words or form for either of them.
The crystal stone that had frozen Garfiel in place.
Had Emilia noticed something from its glow? He couldn't say. But he didn't need to — not now. Not in this moment.
"Look at me, Garfiel."
"…What…"
"If you want to stop me, then stop me with your own hands. Don't leave it to whatever blood is coursing through your body, the kind that makes you lose your head. Talk about underestimating people."
He took a step.
His whole body creaked. Blood dripped from some unseen source, still flowing.
His life was leaking away. But he had no intention of stopping it, nor any intention of letting anyone stop it.
"I'll stop you, because you were trying to stop us. —Emilia will challenge the Tomb. The Sanctuary will be freed. We don't have time to stand around!"
"Just who gave you permission to run your mouth like that!? Who asked you!? Who allowed you!? This place — right here, right now, just like this — should stay the same! It should never change!"
"Never change, staying stagnant forever — that's impossible. Something like this can't just stay as it is for centuries on end without somebody finally waking up!"
"There are people who want it not to change! People who'll keep wishing for it to stay that way!"
"And you — standing guard, keeping everything from changing — if you could reign as the eternal guardian of this place forever, then fine, maybe that'd be okay. …But there are things one person, no matter how hard he tries, simply cannot reach."
Time, the flow of eras — eventually, Garfiel would be left behind by both.
The power to keep the unchanging Sanctuary protected would eventually be lost.
"Just like we all cornered you together, there'll always come a moment when you're helpless on your own. Right here. Right now."
Subaru's figure arrived before Garfiel.
Garfiel, clutching the crystal stone in his right shoulder and gasping for breath, glared at Subaru with eyes that had lost none of their intensity. Subaru met that glare head-on.
They both already knew that words alone weren't enough.
Then — "Go down, Garfiel. Learn what it means to be outnumbered."
"There's… gotta be a better… way to say that…!!"
Garfiel roared.
A fist came upward from below. But it was too slow. The crystal stone was draining his vitality to the root — Garfiel's power was nearly gone. Subaru tilted his head aside with ease — though his body didn't quite cooperate, and the fist caught him square across the jaw. His vision lurched violently.
"You're the one who should go down and stay down, dammit! Once I crush that Tomb, I'll keep you and every last one of those people locked inside until you rot!"
"You were actually planning something like that…?! Good!"
In return, Subaru extended his buckling knees and drove an uppercut straight up from below. It landed squarely on Garfiel's face with no room to dodge. The first clean hit from Subaru's side since the fight began.
A pathetic, wobbly punch — hips swaying, core unsteady, arm not even fully extended.
Naturally, it carried none of the power one might hope for, but against a Garfiel this depleted, it was enough.
"Guh—"
On top of the accumulated damage throughout his body, his mana — the very foundation supporting his flesh — was being squeezed dry. For Garfiel, teetering on the edge of total incapacitation, Subaru's single blow was the decisive push that sent him over the cliff.
But — "It… doesn't hurt…!!"
"Gwah!"
Garfiel slammed both feet into the ground, dropped his weight, and drove his elbow into Subaru's solar plexus. Gasping in pain, Subaru drove his own forehead into Garfiel's brow — using the motion of ducking his head. The impact rattled both their skulls, and they recoiled simultaneously, and in the same instant snapped back to throw punches, trading blows.
Fists buried into each other's cheeks, and blood streamed from both men's nostrils.
Subaru was at the physical limit of damage his body could endure. Garfiel was at his own critical threshold — physical and mental combined.
On Garfiel's right shoulder, the crystal stone's glow was growing dimmer and dimmer, more subdued.
A sign that Garfiel's own mana was nearing exhaustion — in other words, proof that the end was near.
"Gwah!"
"You… looking somewhere else?!"
The instant Garfiel's guard dropped, Subaru opened his fist at the last moment and caught him across the face.
Riding that momentary lapse, the blow sent Garfiel's consciousness flying for an instant. He clenched his teeth by instinct, and the pain of shattering a cracked tooth brought him back.
The tricks to keep from blacking out could no longer lend him their aid. They had already contributed in the best way they could. He would have to endure every last shred of pain on his own.
Complacency, overconfidence — absurd.
Subaru had always been the weak one, the challenger, the one who could never stand honestly in the superior position.
"So… I'm not pulling any punches!"
"Guuh!"
His downward left arm hooked around Garfiel's neck, and the two collapsed together to the ground. Subaru's body slammed into the earth and he grimaced, trying to push himself up — and a savage bolt of pain shot through his left arm, planted against the ground.
Garfiel's fangs had sunk into his left bicep.
"Gah—!"
"…Gggghhh"
"Let go! That hurts, you idiot!"
Subaru punched the face clinging to his arm, and the fangs released with a sickening wrench. His left arm was freed, but the wound — teeth sunk to the bone — left it immobile. And then his right arm — "Grabbed… you!"
His right arm — extended to reclaim the use of his left — was seized at the shoulder by Garfiel's palm. Even with all his punching power and kicking strength gone, his grip remained.
A grip strong enough to gouge rock crushed Subaru's right shoulder, bone and all.
A dull, grinding crack echoed through the air, and Subaru screamed a silent scream.
Left arm torn open from the bicep, right shoulder shattered and useless — with both arms taken from him, Subaru's eyes went wide, and Garfiel kicked him down.
"It's over! Now you can't do a damn thing! From the start, I should've just… batted you down like the worthless little fish you are!"
Watching Subaru writhing on the ground, Garfiel's cheeks twisted in the ecstasy of victory. He swayed to his feet, tilted his head back, and let loose a roar from his throat.
A beast's cry of triumph, a victory song. And just as he was about to deliver the finishing blow to Subaru, who could do nothing but lie there waiting — "…How many times do I have to tell you — don't you dare decide when I'm finished!"
A headbutt from below crushed his nose, and Garfiel's eyes swam.
He stumbled backward, and there stood Subaru — both arms hanging limp at his sides. Impossible. Ridiculous. This wasn't some matter of willpower or determination.
"My end, and your end… neither of them comes here."
"Don't… don't screw with me… Don't stand up. Don't you stand up, you… you little…"
Garfiel's face twisted in anguish, and he took a single step back from the standing Subaru.
As though he was afraid of a man who couldn't use either arm and had nothing left but the ability to stand.
"What's the point of hanging on like that!? Everyone here — every single one of us! We're nothing but a dead-end dumping ground! Rejected by the outside world, with nowhere else to go! What happens when you let people like that outside?! What's the point?!"
"You go outside and you become something. If the choice is between that and fading away slowly in here, then that's what you should do. Either way, there's no path that lets you stay here."
No matter how much power Garfiel displayed, no matter how hard he fought — there were futures he could not change.
With his strength alone, he could not stop the rampage of the
Or perhaps, if Subaru told him about that future, he could convince Garfiel to leave this place.
But that wouldn't have changed his mind.
It would only have moved his body temporarily. His heart would remain locked inside the Sanctuary. And once he realized he'd merely been maneuvered away, he would return to this paradise and sink back into stagnation.
All the hand-shoves, all the outstretched hands — Garfiel Tinzelfrau would ignore every last one of them. He would continue to console himself by mourning his mother's death.
"Come outside, Garfiel. There are no walls out there — not the kind you're afraid of."
"There are walls! I'm the wall! I'm the absolute wall that divides inside from outside! Me, Granny, and the rest of us — we all stopped! And now it's over!"
They had given up once. Terrified of connecting with the outside, the Sanctuary's inhabitants had fled into their own little paradise and abandoned all hope of touching the world beyond the forest.
And so Garfiel tried to protect that sealed paradise. He swore to protect it.
That was no different from closing the book on their very existence. Alone. Of his own accord.
"Then I'll break that wall — right here, right now, by us!"
"That brother of yours is done too! Ram's out cold! I'll put you out of your misery in a second! There is no 'us' anymore — not anywhere! You, me, all of us — it's over!"
"You think it's smart to give up? Giving up is never the cool thing to do! Once you stop and give up, that's it — you never walk again! If you need a wind to get you moving, then it already blew past you a long damn time ago!"
The Trial that ended with the fear of the outside world.
Even after learning what that Trial had shown him, Ryuzu and Frederica still loved Garfiel.
Frederica had chosen her path so that, someday, when the Sanctuary's barrier was released, the people living inside would have somewhere to live in the outside world.
She must have turned around and offered her hand to Garfiel.
Standing before the brother who had stopped in his tracks, Frederica must have reached out her hand toward the path ahead.
Of course she had. Because Frederica was Garfiel's sister.
If your little brother was crying and standing still, you reached out your hand. That was what a big sister did.
"Frederica went out into the outside world and left you behind — that's what you said. But that's wrong. You've got it backwards, Garfiel. You were never bound by the barrier. If you'd wanted to chase after her, you could have started running at any time. The one who chose not to — that was you!"
"…I…"
"You're the one who let go of her hand first, Garfiel! And you keep whining and whining and whining that it was your sister's fault! Don't you feel any shame!?"
Something burned in his chest. He was losing track of what he was even saying.
In the very center of his gut, something dark and writhing stirred.
The supernatural gate at the depths of his dantian — the one that had connected Subaru to the outside world — had lost its function.
Then what was this, now stirring to life in the deepest part of his body?
Without understanding his own mind, his own body, or the man standing before him, he screamed.
"Every single time! No matter what! I've always wanted to — wanted to change! The moment you feel that — that's the starting line!!"
After being defeated, after losing everything, after wallowing in resignation and stopping in your tracks, after huddling with your knees drawn to your chest — When you're so steeped in disappointment in yourself, in the despair of others, in the loneliness of being abandoned by the people who matter most, and you truly believe you're worthless — "Who has the right to tell you not to pick yourself back up and walk the road in front of you!? Who!?"
Give up. Quit. Curl up and rot.
Meaningless. Every word of it, not worth listening to.
If you saw someone huddled on the ground and felt generous enough to say something to them, then for God's sake cheer them on.
Do your best. Go for it. I don't know what's going on, but if you stand up and run, you'll end up somewhere.
—His chest burned.
"That's right, Garfiel…!"
He called the name of the man before him — small, trembling, his eyes flickering with weakness.
—The contents of his belly were on fire.
"That's right, Emilia…!"
He called the name of the girl looking down on them from behind — caught between weakness and something else entirely.
—Something overflowed from the depths of his eyes.
"Hey — that's right,
He raised his head, opened his mouth, widened his eyes, and called the name of the person who had given him the reason to stand back up.
When he'd given up and stopped, she had told him: this isn't the end.
The power he'd received at that moment — Subaru wanted it to reach everyone.
"……"
A power that was not Subaru's own stirred and cried out from the depths of his body.
As though cheering its own birth. As though welcoming its arrival into the world.
Using Natsuki Subaru as its medium, it once again connected existence to the world.
Heat surged outward.
The heat that had been welling up through the center of Subaru's body — piercing through him — erupted into flame.
It swirled before Subaru's bloodshot, tear-streaked eyes, took shape, and reached out to interfere with the world.
"I — am —!!"
Garfiel lunged.
Claws raised, fangs bared, Garfiel abandoned words entirely and tried to deny Subaru's assertion with every ounce of his body's action.
He couldn't continue with words. He couldn't give shape to his feelings. This was the only method he knew.
He didn't know any other way. And so Garfiel extended his claws toward Subaru.
He didn't notice the heat pouring from the bleeding Subaru gathering before his eyes.
He didn't notice the distorted spatial tremors — cracks in the fabric of a world that shouldn't exist — forming in Subaru's path.
—He didn't notice the overwhelming power extending from beyond.
Of course. It was invisible to him. No — it was invisible to anyone other than Subaru.
Because this was the "Invisible Providence" — a force only Subaru could touch.
"……"
The world moved in slow motion.
This sensation was far too familiar to Subaru. The threshold of death, the instant before a fatal wound, the punishment meted out for speaking of the Forbidden — every single one was painful, and the memory was miserable.
But separate from all that, this awakening of consciousness was arriving now for Subaru's sake.
He could see Garfiel's lunging form with perfect clarity.
Murderous intent bared — and yet, it looked almost like the final result of a child's tantrum.
Subaru focused on the very tip of that jaw.
For some reason, understanding came. Before taking action, certainty was already there.
He just needed to aim, and release what he'd drawn taut.
That alone would surely see it through.
—And so Subaru did exactly that.
"……!!"
The released force cried out in triumph and struck the defenseless Garfiel from directly below.
The torrent of power took the shape of a fist — of an arm — and it punched upward through Garfiel's face, launching him high, high into the air.
"Ahh—!"
Struck by an utterly unforeseeable blow, Garfiel was sent crashing to the ground without even the chance to guard.
Flat on his back, spread-eagled in the dirt — Subaru understood that this was the final, decisive blow.
At the same time, he felt a massive quantity of something being torn from within his own body.
"Ugh… fu…"
He dropped to his knees, doubled over, and vomited with everything he had. But not a single drop of blood came up. Not saliva, not blood — nothing useless remained anywhere in his body.
This had been the final blow — wrung out from every last scrap of his life.
The torrent of power dissipated the instant it had struck Garfiel down.
The source still existed somewhere inside Subaru, but he couldn't feel it anymore. At least not now — he had nothing more to offer.
To use that hand any further would require offering up something beyond even that.
But the fight was over. Right now, there was no need to — "You're kidding me…"
"…Don't… underestimate me…"
Garfiel Tinzelfrau — his body crumbling, consciousness on the verge of flying apart, the edges of his vision going white, so exhausted that any blink might be his last — was standing.
Blood pouring from his nose in rivers, he was still on his feet.
"Just how tough are you…?"
"As long as I… don't break… it won't… be over…"
Half of Garfiel's consciousness had already gone. His unfocused eyes weren't really looking at Subaru. Only sheer tenacity kept Garfiel's body upright, refusing to yield.
Surely — almost certainly — one more tap from Subaru would topple him.
But Subaru had nothing left to deliver even that tap. Forget throwing a punch — in another dozen seconds, Subaru's own consciousness would vanish.
Both had given everything they had. Every last drop.
Had Otto and Ram not worn Garfiel down, Subaru would never have made it this far.
He'd thought the hidden card of the blue crystal stone would be enough — that had been naive. The assistance with his consciousness awakening, Garfiel's ultimate weakening — even stacked together, it hadn't been enough.
On Garfiel's right shoulder, the blue crystal flickered.
It looked almost like encouragement. Or a scolding. Subaru nearly laughed.
Subaru, the crystal stone, Otto, Ram.
Even bundling all of their strength together, they still couldn't completely defeat Garfiel. He was undeniably powerful.
Subaru recognized that — truly, from the bottom of his heart. And so — "You… you're the one…"
"Don't… think badly of this, Garfiel. I told you — we're the ones who'll break down the wall."
"Not another… soul…"
Garfiel lurched toward Subaru on unsteady legs.
His left arm rose — trembling, barely lifting — and at its tip, a bloodstained claw existed.
If that reached him, Subaru was finished.
Every last thread of Garfiel's awareness was focused into that single strike.
And that was why he didn't hear it — the rumbling of hooves, growing closer by the second.
—The final push that would drive Garfiel to defeat.
"Out of the… way!?"
"——!!"
Overriding his roar — the high, piercing shriek of a ground dragon.
"Guh—?!"
The impact — literal — lifted every atom of Garfiel's body from the ground. His eyes rolled white, and he was sent flying like a kicked pebble.
He bounced twice, three times off the earth, raising clouds of dust, and the half-beastman's body finally came to rest, face-down in the dirt, utterly motionless.
Patrasche, the agent of that merciless final blow, raised her head and let out a triumphant roar.
"How's that, Garfiel…"
Beside the earth dragon trumpeting her victory, Subaru called out to the face-down Garfiel in a voice so hoarse he wasn't sure it would even reach.
What was it that had truly decided the bout?
Simple.
Strong Garfiel fought alone. Weak Subaru didn't.
So — "This is — the power… of numbers…"
"There's… gotta be a better… way to say…"
Garfiel, unable to move, reacted to Subaru's words with bitter resentment.
And Subaru smiled slightly.
"Then… it's the victory of everyone's feelings bound together. A triumph of bonds."
"A… 'queuing stone… doesn't rise… alone'… huh…"
With those last words, Garfiel finally fell silent.
Watching that — truly understanding, for the first time, that he had won — Subaru tilted his head back and looked up at the sky.
"Finally… got to hear the right kind of proverb…"
He murmured that with a satisfied smile, let go of everything, and collapsed sideways onto the ground.